Description/Abstract
The fast-growing demographic group of Asian Americans is often perceived as a “model minority.” This paper establishes empirical evidence of this stereotype in the context of education and then analyzes its consequences. We show that teachers rate Asian students’ academic skills more favorably than observationally similar White students in the same class, even after accounting for test performance and behavior. This contrasts with teachers’ lower likelihood of favoring Black and Hispanic students. Notably, teachers respond to the presence of any Asian student in the classroom by exacerbating Black-White and Hispanic-White assessment gaps. This suggests that the “model minority” stereotype can negatively impact other minority groups de-spite its ostensibly positive connotation.
Document Type
Working Paper
Date
Fall 12-22-2022
Keywords
Teacher Evaluation, Racial Bias, Asian Americans
Language
English
Series
Working Papers Series
Disciplines
Economic Policy | Economics | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy
ISSN
1525-3066
Recommended Citation
Shi, Ying and Zhu, Maria, "“Model Minorities” in the Classroom? Positive Evaluation Bias towards Asian Students and its Consequences" (2022). Center for Policy Research. 464.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/464
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Included in
Economic Policy Commons, Economics Commons, Public Policy Commons
Additional Information
Working paper no. 253